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Main news of November 20

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RUSSIA * President Vladimir Putin said Russia would not ignore NATO's military build up near its borders and would provide an adequate response to any... 20.11.2007, Sputnik International

2007-11-20T19:27+0000

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Main news of November 20

19:27 GMT 20.11.2007

RUSSIA

* President Vladimir Putin said Russia would not ignore NATO's military build up near its borders and would provide an adequate response to any "muscle-flexing"

* Russia's Supreme Court rejected an opposition party demand that President Putin be barred from December's parliamentary vote on the grounds that his position gives him an unfair advantage

* Russia is completing talks on natural gas supplies until 2011 to Ukraine and the Baltic states and hopes to avoid problems on New Year's eve, a first deputy prime minister said

* The overhaul of the Admiral Gorshkov Russian-made aircraft carrier sold to India under a 2004 contract could be delayed indefinitely, a source at the Sevmash shipyard said

* Members of an apocalyptic Russian sect in the country's central Penza Region remain underground as efforts continue to persuade them to come to the surface, a local MP said

* More than half of respondents in a recent opinion poll said they would vote for the Kremlin-backed United Russia party at next month's parliamentary elections

* Moscow authorities have given the go-ahead for an opposition meeting in central Moscow, November 24, but turned down a request for a march, a City Hall spokesman said

* A workers' strike at a Ford car manufacturing factory near St. Petersburg could disrupt car deliveries to Russian customers, the company's public relations manager in Russia said

* Famous proto-shock rocker Alice Cooper is again in the capital of Russia November 21-22 to give two nights of scary performances as part of his Psycho-Drama world tour 2007

WORLD

* The death toll in the aftermath of Bangladesh's Cyclone Sidr has risen to almost 3,500, with over 1,000 people still unaccounted for, local media said, quoting army sources

* General parliamentary elections in Pakistan will be held on January 8, 2008, Mohammad Farooq, head of the Electoral Commission, said

* Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the country's nuclear program is under the control of the UN nuclear watchdog, which has complete access to Iran's nuclear facilities

* Syria will only take part in an international Middle East conference next week in Annapolis if the return of the Golan Heights is on the agenda, a deputy Syrian foreign minister said

* China is planning to launch its next manned spacecraft in October 2008, a researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) said

* The United Nations will cut aid to the areas affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 21 years ago to encourage national development programs, a senior UN official said

* A boycott by ethnic Serbs of recent parliamentary polls in Kosovo puts into question the legitimacy of the future authorities in the breakaway republic, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Large-scale strikes continue to escalate in France as civil servants walked out and thousands gathered in French cities to take part in anti-government demonstrations, French media said

* Pakistani opposition media said some 150 journalists had been arrested in Karachi during protests against a government clampdown on the media following the introduction of emergency rule

* Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said following a meeting with the Egyptian president that he expected a final peace deal to be signed with the Palestinians in 2008

* The leaders of Southeast Asian nations have signed a historic charter which will change the 10-nation bloc into a rules-based legal association, regional media reported

* Another round of talks on the status of Serbia's secessionist republic of Kosovo, mediated by the European Union, the United States and Russia, has begun in Brussels, an EU spokesperson said

BUSINESS

* Russia will allocate 28 billion rubles (about $1.15 billion) for a project to build a high speed passenger rail link between St. Petersburg and Helsinki, the Russian railway monopoly said